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Your guide to green living in Montgomery County, MD |
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Your guide to green living in Montgomery County, MD |
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Your guide to green living in Montgomery County, MD |
Did you know you can virtually eliminate the mosquito population in your yard and neighborhood with a few simple, non-toxic ingredients?
If you didn’t know, those expensive pesticides being fogged into a yard are not only ineffective, but harmful to you, your pets, children, and important insects that protect your trees and flowers.
Female mosquitos lay their eggs in standing water, and if we can trick them into this simple trap, we can actually reduce the population by the thousands!
All you need is a bucket, some straw, and BTI mosquito dunks or bits.
Placing straw into a bucket of water will attract more females to lay eggs, as the fermenting straw will multiply the diatoms and algae that mosquito larvae like to eat. You can use plain water or other dried plant matter, but straw or hay works fast.
Add into your bucket a mosquito dunk (or part of one), or mosquito bits. These are made of BTI, a naturally occurring bacterium that kills mosquito larvae. It is only toxic to mosquito, fungus gnats, and flies, so will not harm other wildlife or humans.
As the water gets stagnant and the straw ferments, female mosquitos will lay their eggs in the bucket. Once they develop into larvae, the BTI will kill the larvae. Voila! You’ve just made a population trap, by tricking mosquitos into laying their eggs in your bucket, but they will never turn into adults. Over time, you will slash the mosquito population!
Change out the water, straw, and BTI every month, and if you have rodents like mice, rats, or chipmunks, cover the bucket in chicken wire so they cannot fall in and drown.
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This is a good idea and we’ve used these discs in our French drains. We can usually find non pesticide solutions…
Here is another non-toxic weapon from your bathroom: dilute plain mouthwash (not mint or other flavors) in a spray bottle with water.
Spray on your patio, deck, outdoor furniture, potted plants or wherever you like to hang out in your yard for a more pleasant mosquito free zone. Play around with the dilution solution to find the concentration that works for your area. Re-spray after a good rain and before your outdoor activities! I’ve been doing this for years with great results.
Where the heck do you get “plain” mouthwash? And what exactly does that mean? Everything I see has a flavor.
Maybe the old non-mint yellow Listerine? Not sure if they even make it anymore
I think this website is very valuable in providing information about how as an individual, community , business, and government we may share reliable ecologically responsible information.
I do not live in Montgomery County, appreciate having access to the information provided, and will now also research local resources to access ecologically responsible information. These are great examples of ways to control and manage mosquitos around the home. I will need to locate from where to get the bits to be added with the hay and water..
Thank you
I did not see a link to where this product might be available.
The way I read this I need:
1) a Bucket (maybe a big flower pot will do)
2) Straw
3) Chicken wire
Where do I get only a handful of straw and about a 12″ square piece of chicken wire?
Other than these small issues, sounds like a wonderful concept.
Go to a farm or to any place that has horses they will gladly give you some hay for the trap for free. Go to southern states store or tractor supply store or a hardware store for the chicken wire. Also might find some at the restore store.
I got rid of my downspout extenders and have hardly felt any mosquitoes since!!! They are mosquitoes breeding ground with a ton of water that just sits in the corrugated surface. It doesn’t help to add a bucket with straw and mosquitoe dunks if you still have water sitting in other places! So many of our homes have these awful extensions, we need to get rid of them!
Is there a suggested number of buckets per linear foot/Sq feet?
There’s no advice–mosquitoes fly up to a mile so one bucket should do with a small backyard–if you have a much larger yard with a source of them you could consider another bucket closer to that source.
Same as Trixie, I’m wondering how many buckets I should place around my property. Say I have an acre. How many buckets should I put out?
There’s no advice–mosquitoes fly up to a mile so one bucket should do with a small backyard–if you have a much larger yard with a source of them you could consider another bucket closer to that source.